Gunman's body to lie near his racist hero

The Jewish gunman who killed four Arabs last Thursday may be buried next to the killer he tried to emulate, officials at the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba said.

The funeral of Eden Natan-Zada was postponed on Friday after his family was denied the right to bury him in a military cemetery or civilian cemeteries near his home.

The 19-year-old boarded a bus headed for Arab towns in the north of Israel and shot the driver and three passengers, apparently in protest at Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. After the shooting he was beaten to death by an angry mob.

Now Natan-Zada could be buried next to Baruch Goldstein, a US-born doctor who killed 29 Palestinians in a mosque in 1994, it was reported by Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Goldstein is buried alone in a garden that has become a shrine to the right-wing extremists Natan-Zada had joined after making contact with them on the internet.

Yesterday his mother Debbie told The Observer there had been no decision but said she wanted her son buried close to their home so the family could visit his grave. The family are upset that they have not been able to bury their son swiftly, in accordance with tradition.

Yitzhak, the gunman's father, threatened to carry the body to the home of Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister.

'I will come with my son's body to Mofaz's home so he may look into my eyes and tell me not to bury it,' he said.

'The defence minister is a coward. We were offered to bury him in Tapuah, but we would not be able to visit him there. The Israel Defence Force abandoned my son, and that is why he was murdered.'

Mofaz said Natan-Zada was not fit to lie next to the dead of Israel's wars. On Friday the teenager's victims: bus driver Michel Bahus, 56; Nader Hayak, 55; Hazar Turki, 23, and her 21-year-old sister Dina; were buried in Shfaram, near Haifa.

Before the killing, Natan-Zada had absconded from the army and was believed to be hiding in the West Bank settlement of Tapuah, which was founded by followers of Meir Kahane, an American rabbi whose Kach party was banned by the Israeli government for its racist views.

Kahane was murdered in New York in 1990 and his followers established a new party, Kahane Chai (Kahane lives) which was also outlawed. Its followers remain active and dozens assembled at the cemetery in Rishon Letzion on Friday awaiting the body of the gunman.

Many likened Natan-Zada to Goldstein, claiming they were both gentle men before carrying out acts of violence driven by despair at the government's direction.

After becoming close to the Kahanists, Natan-Zada initially refused to enlist for his compulsory military service. During his short period of service he was jailed for refusing orders and then deserted a month ago.

It is not clear how Natan-Zada had got from Tapuah to the north of Israel but police have arrested three teenagers from the settlement on suspicion of aiding him.

Although last Thursday's murders have been condemned by most Israelis, the right-wingers who waited to mourn Natan-Zada were already planning to place him in their pantheon of heroes.

Avigdor Eskin, 45, a writer from Jerusalem believes more young Israelis are preparing to carry out acts of violence.

'Many people are desperate because of the government's decision to expel a certain part of the population from their homes. This will develop into more tragedies.

'He was looking for a way to stop what he saw as a Holocaust. I don't think he was to blame, the government was to blame,' he said. He likened Natan-Zada to Goldstein. 'He was also a very gentle man. This was not a hate crime... it was a political act,' he said.